78 THE JUKES. 



When this schedule was first used in the State Prisons, its 

 employment was greatly discouraged by officials whose long acquaint- 

 ance with criminals led them to believe that it would be impossible 

 to get any correct information from the convicts. Indeed, so per- 

 sistent were the representations that felons will rather lie than tell 

 the truth, that I adopted the policy of informing each man that, if any 

 question I asked involved an answer he did not wish to make, he 

 might decline without having his reasons for so doing questioned. 

 In addition, and as a test of accuracy and before credit was given to 

 the statements thus made, the schedules of a certain number of 

 convicts were verified by entering into correspondence with the offi- 

 cers of a number of institutions, with members of the local commit- 

 tees of this Association, and with the police of different cities. The 

 result of these inquiries has been substantially to yield a useful study 

 in human nature and to relieve the criminal class from an aspersion 

 which it does not deserve. It is common to accept the legal assump- 

 tion that if a man falsifies about one fact he will falsify about all 

 facts. There is no such consistency in human nature ; the assump- 

 tion is a legal fiction so far as criminals are concerned ; for, as a 

 class, they do not falsify the truth except when they hope to gain 

 something they desire, to hide something they fear, or to conceal 

 some fact about themselves of which they are ashamed, in which 

 respects they do not materially differ from the average man. Upon 

 matters which they consider indifferent, their answers are as accu- 

 rate as their knowledge extends, but on the questions relating to the 

 number of their commitments or offenses, many declined to answer, 

 although substantially admitting they were habitual criminals, and 

 confessing their besetting crime. Another class of subjects which 

 it was impossible to reach, about which only indirect questions were 

 asked, was that relating to the good name of the mother and 

 sisters. In only two cases have the convicts acknowledged the 

 bad repute of their mothers, and in both cases it was given volun- 

 tarily. In both cases also it turns out that the men were serv- 

 ing terms for rape, and seemed to have absolutely no sense of honor 

 about women, one of them being almost an imbecile. 



